Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to networking and more specifically to group ownership of a network.
Description of the Related Art
A wireless peer-to-peer (P2P) network may be organized into one or more wireless groups. Each wireless group typically has a group owner (GO) and one or more clients. The group owner exercises control over wireless communications within the group. For example, the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) has promulgated a 60 Gigahertz personal area network (PAN) standard whereby peer devices may form a wireless group, whereby one of the clients becomes a Personal Basic Service Set (PBSS) Coordination Point (PCP) that then serves as the group owner for the group by, for example, handling the beacon frame transmission for the group, as well as managing the membership of the group. However, as the PCP is a peer client in the workgroup, any number of circumstances may require the peer client acting as the PCP to cease to do so. Conventionally, the departure of the current PCP from the work group typically results in the termination of the work group and thus necessitates the subsequent creation of a new workgroup for the remaining members, which is a complicated and time-consuming process.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.